This invention relates to a wire enclosure and in particular to a lockable wire enclosure and a locking mechanism therefor.
Lockable wire enclosures are well known in the prior art and are conventionally used for securely storing valuable materials, such as packages, tools, valuable parts, medicines, and the like.
Conventionally, wire enclosures have been used for such storage since the stored items are fully visible so that inventory control is facilitated. Additionally, the stored items are accessible to airflow and to light for improved storage. Such secure storage prevents pilferage of the stored items, while still enabling authorized persons to access the materials. Many of such prior art wire enclosures are mounted on wheels or casters for ease of movement of the materials from place to place. Conventionally, the walls of such enclosure are made of a heavy-duty gauge wire mesh. While some prior art enclosures include a slidable front door, the more common arrangement is to have two hinged front doors. Conventionally also, the enclosures are provided with one or more wire mesh shelves.
Such prior art enclosures or security carts have used a variety of locking mechanisms to securely lock the doors in order to prevent access except to authorized persons. In some prior art enclosures, heavy-duty metal frames are provided, including conventional catalog locking arrangements for locking the door to the frame of the enclosure. A problem with such arrangements has been that the door is not securely locked to either the bottom wall nor to the top wall of the enclosure. This creates a problem in that the door may be forced away from the top wall or the bottom wall whereby unauthorized persons have access to the contents of the enclosure, while the door is still locked.
In other prior art arrangements, the doors have been made of solid metal or other solid materials such as wood. While this creates a more secure enclosure, the disadvantage of this arrangement is that visibility of the contents of the enclosure has been sacrificed to greater security.
Other prior art locking arrangements have also been used but these all have the disadvantage that the arrangements are expensive and therefore less desirable.
It is therefore desired to provide a wire mesh enclosure and a secure locking arrangement therefor.
In particular, it is desired to provide a wire mesh enclosure which may be securely locked while at the same time securing the doors to both the wire mesh top wall and the wire mesh bottom wall of the enclosure.